Richard and I recently reviewed the finale of Pluribus, and discussed our thoughts on the series overall.
Some ground we covered:
Sex differences. Carol tries to save the world by speaking directly with the hivemind pod people and taking notes on their responses. In contrast, Manousos tinkers with a theory about radio frequencies and tries to avoid all contact with the hivemind. An illustration of people vs. things dimension in psychology
Richard point outs Vince Gilligan’s recurring theme of “morally pure mestizos,” principled, decent Latin American men in a universe of amorality throughout his shows
Manousos is a black box in a way Carol isn’t. The hivemind uses Zosia to seduce her into falling in love. With Manousos, we’re left guessing what lever the hive would even pull to manipulate him
How this show differs from Vince Gilligan’s earlier work
Why people remember Breaking Bad as nonstop action, even though its early seasons were actually slow and the show was nearly cancelled
I suggest what really matters isn’t pace, but the stakes for the characters we care about
Network TV trained audiences to expect constant explosions, cliffhangers, and neat resolutions; streaming has changed what storytellers can do
In Pluribus, the alien hivemind studies people’s weak spots and uses love, faith, and belonging to pull them in. I connect this manipulation to real human psychology: people rarely join movements by force; they join because they’re told exactly what they want to hear
Richard suggests Manousos’s moral spine may be religious—small symbols, religious language, a sense that Manousos sees the hivemind as something like demonic temptation
We discuss whether either of us would join the hivemind. Similar to Robert Nozick’s experience machine, once you cross over, you’ll never miss what you gave up
We talk through a bizarre moral puzzle: they can’t kill, but they can still reshape the world. With all human knowledge pooled, could they engineer fast-growing food, short-lived animals, or other “clean” solutions that avoid direct violence?
We discuss how, among the hivemind, there’s no petty vandalism, no dumb impulses, no window smashing, no graffiti. The hive has access to humanity’s smartest minds and its worst instincts, yet only our nobler, cooperative behaviors and abilities are expressed
Much more
